Data management system and method

ABSTRACT

A method of replicating data on a source to a destination comprising the steps of: extracting data from a source via a user interface in a source format; converting the extracted data from the source&#39;s format into a destination format; and uploading the converted data to said destination.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.10/880,459, filed Jul. 1, 2004, and entitled “DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ANDMETHOD,” which in turn is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.09/620,576, filed Jul. 20, 2000, and entitled “DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEMAND METHOD,” now U.S. Pat. No. 6,782,003, which in turn claims thebenefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/205,246, filed OnMay 19, 2000.

The present invention relates generally to computers and communications,and more specifically, to a method and system for moving personalinformation over computer networks.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is well known that data communication networks such as the Internet,Wide Area Networks (WANs) and Local Area Networks (LANs), offerefficient and ubiquitous means of organizing and distributingcomputerized data. These attributes have resulted in their widespreaduse for both business and personal applications. For example, theInternet is now a common medium for operating online auctions, academicand public forums, distributing publications such as newspapers andmagazines, and performing electronic commerce and electronic mailtransactions.

New services are being provided over the Internet which are personalizedor customized to users' requirements, which has resulted in personaldata being stored in the service provider's domain. However, there areno effective ways for the user to easily relocate this personal datafrom one service provider to another; personal data residing with theold service provider must be manually re-entered with the new serviceprovider.

FIG. 1 presents an exemplary system for a typical networked applicationor service, such as electronic mail (E-mail). The interconnection ofvarious hosts and other devices is shown over an Internet 100. TheInternet 100 consists of a vast interconnection of computers, servers,routers, computer networks and public telecommunication networks whichallows two parties to communicate via whatever entities happen to beinterconnected at any particular time. Presently, the systems that makeup the Internet 100 comprise many different varieties of computerhardware and software. In general, this variety is not a great hindranceas the Internet 100 is unified by a small number of standard transportprotocols.

Access to this Internet 100 is provided by Internet Service Providers(ISP) 130 who convert the various communication protocols used byend-user computers 140, 150 to the standard Internet protocols. Forexample, end users 140, 150 may be connected to an ISP 130 usingwireless communications, or hardwired connections such as cable modems,television set-top boxes, or telephone line modems, using varioustechnologies such as ADSL (asynchronous digital subscriber line), ISDN(integrated services digital network), or other known media andtechnologies.

Additionally, a number of Application Service Providers (ASP) 110, 120are typically connected to the Internet 100. These ASPs 110, 120 arethird-parties which provide software and other computer-based servicesto users across a wide area network from a remote location. Generally,these services are provided for a fee (usually monthly or yearly),though the ASPs 110, 120 may offer basic services for no cost andgenerate revenues in a peripheral manner, such as through advertising orsale of advanced services. The services offered by the ASPs 110, 120might include:

-   -   commercial or personal banking;    -   investment services such as stock portfolio tracking;    -   calendar/appointment books;    -   contact lists, address books;    -   mailing lists;    -   sports/news/entertainment/weather forecast preferences;    -   document storage, file backup services, distributed or shared        files provider;    -   collaboration tools such as message boards;    -   sales automation applications;    -   folders;    -   project files;    -   enterprise resource planning (ERP) software;    -   entertainment services, such as networked games; and    -   office applications.

Generally, a service such as Email may be provided by a number ofcompeting ASPs 110, 120. Many of these ASPs 110, 120 provide theirservice using a standard protocol, HTML (hypertext markup language),which allows access in a ubiquitous fashion from any computer having anappropriate ‘browser’ connected to the Internet. HTML is one of thestandard languages of the Internet 100 for defining the structure andformat of a web page.

When an end-user wishes to access their Email, they do so by‘connecting’ to their Email provider, for example, ASP 110 and loggingon by entering a userID and Password in response to a challenge from theASP 110. Standard HTML or equivalent protocols allow the end-user toread, create, send, and store Emails as well as create, read and storerelated information such as address lists, on the Email provider's 110website.

FIG. 1 is something of a simplification, as ISPs 130 and ASPs 110, 120are often connected to the Internet 100 through Network Access Points(NAPs), rather than directly as shown in FIG. 1. As well, the Internet100 itself is far more complex than that shown in FIG. 1, including forexample, leased and private communication lines and subnetworks,firewalls and routers. However, these details would be well known to oneskilled in the art.

Presently, the only way to relocate personal data from one serviceprovider to another is to do so manually. In the case of Email, forexample, relocating from ASP 110 to ASP 120 would require one to:

-   1. create a new Email account on ASP 120;-   2. recreate the address book or contacts list, which might involve    accessing both accounts and manually ‘cutting and pasting’    individual entries from one service provider to the other. In the    best case, an intermediate file would be created by the user by    ‘exporting’ data from the old Email ASP server 110 and ‘importing’    that same data into the new Email ASP server 120, possibly requiring    some experimentation or conversion to rationalise the two formats;-   3. retain access to old Email, both sent and received;-   4. replicate the folder structure used to store Emails, which    involves inspecting the existing structure and manually creating the    same, or similar folder structure on the new Email ASP server 120;-   5. individually transfer each Email message from the old Email ASP    server 110 by copying it to their computer, and possibly    manipulating its format, then copying it from there to the new Email    ASP server 120;-   6. periodically checking the old Email ASP account to collect Email    sent to the old address, with the consequent need to regularly check    two accounts, and the possibility of forgetting to access the old    Email account regularly, and missing important messages until they    are too old;-   7. inform all Email contacts of the new address; and-   8. arrange for the old Email provider to forward any new Email to    the new account.

Thus, when an end-user wishes to change from one Email provider toanother, the transfer or copying of the data stored on the first (old)ASP's server to the second (new) ASP's server is a major investment intime for the end-user, and is an error-prone process. Omission of asingle file could be critical, and at the least annoying. Further, ifthe Emails had been stored in some form of hierarchy using ‘folders’,then this folder structure must also be recreated, and the files sent tothe appropriate folder. As a consequence, misfiling is another potentialhazard.

Because of the physical difficulty and practical hazards of relocatingpersonal data from one ASP 110, 120 to another, end-users have beenreluctant to do so; a condition known in the industry as ‘stickiness’,since users are forced to ‘stick’ with one service. This “stickiness”presents a tremendous barrier to the entry of new ASPs and to opencompetition between existing providers. To capture costumers from theircompetition, a new provider must offer enough of an incentive in termsof price, features, or quality to convince customers to accept thedifficulties of relocating ASPs.

If the above problems could be overcome, end-users could easily transfertheir personal data from one Application Service Provider to another,reducing the barriers to new competition, and permitting the end-user toexercise real choice.

There is therefore a need for a means of replicating the personalizedenvironment from one service provider to another, over the Internet andsimilar networks, provided with consideration for the problems outlinedabove.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a method andsystem which obviates or mitigates at least one of the disadvantagesdescribed above.

One aspect of the invention is broadly defined as a method of relocatingdata from a source to a destination comprising the steps of: extractingdata from a source via a user interface in the source's format;converting the extracted data from the source's format into adestination format; and uploading the converted data to the destination.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features of the invention will become more apparent fromthe following description in which reference is made to the appendeddrawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a physical layout of an exemplary communication network asknown in the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a method of transferring personalised orcustomised data in a broad embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a physical layout of an exemplary communication network in abroad embodiment of the invention;

FIGS. 4 a and 4 b are a flow chart of a method of transferringpersonalised or customised data in a preferred embodiment of theinvention; and

FIG. 5 illustrates a user screen following a request to initiatetransfer of service.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A methodology which addresses the objects outlined above, is presentedas a flow chart in FIG. 2. This method of replicating data on a sourceto a destination is effected by extracting data from the source via auser interface in the source's format at step 200, then converting thisextracted data from the source's format into destination's format atstep 210. Finally, the converted data is uploaded onto the destinationat step 220.

In its application to current technology, the data source anddestination may be web sites residing on Internet servers which provideapplication services to end users, but may also be personal componentssuch as personal computers (PCs), personal digital assistants (PDAs) orcellular telephones. The invention may also be applied to othercommunication networks including wireless networks such as cellulartelephone networks, and hardwired networks such as the public switchedtelephone network, cable television networks, ATM networks, frame relaynetworks, local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs),Intranets and Extranets, with their associated protocols, components andtechnologies, or combinations of such networks.

Typically, the data source will have a user interface which. is eithertext-based or graphic-based, such as a graphic user interface (GUI),which allows the end user to interact with the application service beingprovided. The invention accesses the user's personal or customized dataand preferences on the data source via this user interface, generallyemulating the user himself. This allows the invention to access anyinformation that the end user himself can access, so this informationcan be extracted and eventually copied to the data destination. Sincethe access is via the user interface, the ASP being targeted cannotselectively allow the end user to view his personal data, whilepreventing the downloading of the same personal data.

When the data is extracted from the source, it will generally containformatting and other codes, as well as the personal data that the enduser wishes to relocate. Hence, it may be necessary to convert this datainto the form required by the target, possibly removing graphic objectsand links, formatting codes, re-arranging data fields, and alteringfield sizes. Such operations would be clear to one skilled in the artfrom the teachings herein, but greater explanation of this process isprovider hereinafter.

Similar to the step of extracting, the step of uploading the converteddata to the destination at step 54 may be effected over various networksand using various protocols such as LANs, WANs, Intranets, cellular,telephone and cable networks, with their associated protocols andtechnologies. This data may be up loaded to the destination site in anumber of manners, including via a user interface or an import utility.If the uploading is done via a user interface, the invention willrequest entry pages, load them with data and return them using standardInternet protocols and formats.

FIG. 3 presents an exemplary system for implementing the invention. Thissystem is generally the same as the system presented in FIG. 1, exceptthat an additional server 160 has been included to support the ASP ofthe invention. The ASP server 160 may communicate with the otherentities in the system using standard communication media and protocols.Of course, the application of the invention to other communicationsystems such as such as LANs, WANs and cellular telephone networks,would require a different device to support the software, which would beunderstood by one skilled in the art.

The software of the invention may be stored on the ASP server 160 whereit may execute, or be sent to other locations for execution. Thesoftware may also be implemented as a software agent which executes in amobile or distributed manner, or alternatively as an executable file orapplet which is downloaded to a subscribing ASP and executes on theirserver. The actual location of such software is only limited by theability of that location to provide the functions of:

-   -   understanding the request for information in the form of a        recognisable address of a relevant server containing the desired        data, such as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or equivalent,        and    -   providing a two-way path and appropriate protocol for the        transfer of data between the software and the service providers,        such as HTML over the Internet.        These functions may be called using an appropriate Applications        Programming Interface (API).

In the preferred embodiment described hereinafter, the software has amodular architecture and executes on the ASP server 160, though aninitiation window resides on the “partner” ASPs 110, 120, allowing themto solicit new customers themselves.

The invention of FIGS. 2 and 3 address the problems in the art. Itallows fast, effective transfer of all relevant personalized orcustomised data to take place with little likelihood of loss ormisfiling of the data. This ability permits service transfers to becarried out reliably, which in turn translates into greater end-useracceptance of Email, and improved opportunities for the ASPs to markettheir services and capture an increasing share of the availableend-users.

FIGS. 4 a and 4 b present a flow chart of the preferred method of theinvention, as applied to the example of transferring an email accountfrom one ASP to another.

At step 400, the routine sits in a loop awaiting a request from a userto transfer their personal data from one service provider to another. Asdescribed above, the invention software will preferably reside on an ASPserver 160 itself, and be initiated when a user clicks on a “transfer”icon on a partnering site. When the user clicks on such an icon, amessage will be sent to the ASP server 160 to initiate this routine. Theend-user may send his request via his ISP using a number of differentdevices including a computer, smart terminal, personal digitalassistant, Internet-ready telephone or other similar interface. Suchdevices and their supporting networks and protocols are well known inthe art. Clearly, the algorithm may also be initiated in other mannerswhich would be clear to one skilled in the art.

To elaborate on the Internet example, a Web browser is an applicationprogram that runs on the end user's computer and provides a way to lookat and interact with all the information on the World Wide Web. A Webbrowser uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to make requests ofWeb servers throughout the Internet on behalf of the Web browser user.Currently, most Web browsers are implemented as graphical userinterfaces.

When the end-user enters file requests by either “opening” a Web file,typing in a URL, or clicking on a hypertext link, the Web browser buildsan HTTP request and sends it to the Internet Protocol address indicatedby the URL. The HTTP software in the destination server machine receivesthe request and, after any necessary processing, the requested file isreturned.

The HTTP is the set of rules for exchanging files on the World Wide Web,including text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimediafiles. HTTP also allows files to contain references to other files whoseselection will elicit additional transfer requests (hypertext links).Typically, the HTTP software on a Web server machine is designed to waitfor HTTP requests and handle them when they arrive.

At step 405, the routine then returns an HTTP form requestinginformation from end user that will allow to access the old ASP account.Typically, this information will consist of the URL of the old ASP, andthe end user's corresponding account identification and password. Thisrequest may be forwarded to the end user by email or similar means, butis preferably sent in the form of a web page 500 as per FIG. 5. Ofcourse, other relevant information may also be request, as appropriateto the situation. The routine then sits in the loop of step 410, whileawaiting the response from the end user.

When the end user has filled the information on this web page andreturned it to the ASP server 160 by clicking on the “return” button,the routine accesses the end user's account on the old ASP at step 415.This is doing by requesting the URL page and responding to the challengefor the end user's account information, as the end user would do himselfin a standard logon.

Of course, one may add a time-out routine to the waiting loop of step410, provide feedback to the user if there is a failure to properlyaccess the old ASP at step 415, or advise the user if the informationprovided in response to the request of step 410 is incorrect. Theaddition of such steps to the algorithm would be clear to one skilled inthe art, and are peripheral to those of the invention itself.

Once the old account has been accessed, the routine may begin to sendrequests for data and folder structure information from the old ASP atstep 420. These requests will be prepared to mimic the interaction ofthe end user to the particular web site from which data is beingextracted.

The routine receives the requested data and folder structure at step 425and stores this information until it has been determined at step 430that all of the data and folder structure have been downloaded.Preferably, the routine will then advise the end user as to the progressthat has been made at step 435, specifically that the data and folderstructure have now been successfully downloaded from the old ASP.

As noted above, the received data may arrive in web pages which couldinclude text, graphics, audio files, executable applets, data files orattachments such as software files, or other data and files known in theart. Therefore, at step 440, personal information is then parsed fromthe downloaded data. The format and structure of the data is derivedfrom combinations of context and knowledge of the layout of the data asit is presented by the old Email ASP server. The layout of the datamight be compared with known templates for known Email ASPs to simplifyand improve the speed and accuracy of the interpretation of the data.

This parsing may be done in a number of ways, the principles of whichare generally known in the art, though the application is not known, forexample:

-   1. deriving the relevant source data by use of a ‘delta’ technique    which compares a received web page to an empty or null web page;-   2. recognising the various types of data by ‘positional    information’, tags or sequence;-   3. comparing a data file to a data template for the web page to    extract non-template data. If a particular web site is used a great    deal, it may be more reliable to create a special template tailored    to remove the formatting code from its corresponding web pages; or-   4. extracting the formatting codes from a markup language data file    (such as HTML or XML) to obtain the raw data.

Now that the personal data and organizational structure have been culledfrom the old ASP, the issue of uploading this data to the new ASP may beaddressed.

The task of uploading data begins at step 445 where a new email accounton the new ASP server is created. This account may be created by simplysending the pertinent URL to the new ASP, which will return the newaccount page. The ASP then completes this page as the user himself woulddo. If the ASP requires additional information, it can query the enduser as required. If the end user has already set up an account with thenew ASP, this step may be unnecessary, and the ASP may simply log on tothe existing account.

Once access is made to the new ASP, the routine may begin to upload thefolder structure at step 450, and email data itself at step 455.Typically, these steps will constitute separate steps of creating a newfolder structure and then inserting data into the desired folders,though they may be done in other manners that would be clear to oneskilled in art.

Once it is confirmed at step 460 that all of the data and folderstructure have been uploaded to new the ASP, the routine will advise ofthe progress to the end user at step 465. The routine may then wrap upthe process at step 470 by logging off from the new ASP, informing theend user of completion of transfer, preparing billing records andpreparing an audit file. The routine may also initiate a recurring timerto awake a software agent periodically to check the old ASP for emailsto be forwarded to the new ASP.

Many other options and alternatives may be included, which would beclear to one skilled in the art; some of which are described herein.

Software Architecture

In the preferred embodiment, the invention is to be implemented assoftware residing on an ASP server 160. This software will preferablyhave a modular architecture with the following components:

-   1. Web Presence: This is the actual ASP web-site of the invention.    This site is not normally accessed directly by the client, but    rather is referred by a partner web-site. The ASP server 160    web-site of the invention will then portray the look and feel of the    referring web site.-   2. Database: User information may be stored and managed using any    method known in the art. In the preferred embodiment, a relational    database management system (RDBMS) is used, which is a program that    allows you create, update, and administer a relational database such    as Microsoft's Access, Oracle's Oracle7, or Computer Associates′    CA-OpenIngres. The relational database will be used to store end    user data on the ASP server 160. Other suitable database management    systems include object-orientated database management systems    (ODBMSs), though an appropriate means of storing data would depend    on the application, and would be clear to one skilled in the art.-   3. Queuing Engine: The queuing engine is a front-end application to    the RDBMS. It takes business logic events and translates them into    entries in the database schema. The Scheduling engine, Read/Writers    and Persona Managers all interact with the Queuing engine rather    than with the RDBMS directly. Items such as queue items, logging and    billing information all pass through this service.-   4. Scheduling Engine: The scheduling engine watches for items in the    queue and matches them with the appropriate Reader/Writer based on    the current load of the system, the priority of the request and the    “best-match” of the reader/writer to the request. It may be    considered a “dating service” for switch-requests.-   5. Core Reader/Writer: Readers/Writers (RW) fetch client data from    one service and move the data to other services. There are specific    RWs for each service the client may use. The Core RW takes care of    operations common to all RWs regardless of their specialty. This    includes, but is not limited to Cookie management, talking with the    services web server and SSL certificate negotiations.-   6. Vertical R/Ws: To build on the Core RWs, there are also RWs that    are specific to a particular vertical, for example: Email, Stock    Portfolios, Banking, and ASPs. These Vertical RWs (VRWs) take the    raw HTTP/web communications and translate them into industry    specific business objects. Business entities such as accounts,    portfolios and mailing lists all reside in the VRWs.-   7. Specific VRW: At the most fine-grained level of the system are    the Specific VRWs (SVRWs). The SVRWs are the exact implementations    for dealing with a single web-based service. Services such as Yahoo™    Email, Yahoo Stock quotes, CIBC™ portfolio manager, Hotmail™ email    would all require their own SVRWs.-   8. Persona Manager: As the system of the invention extracts more and    more information about a particular client, this information is    accumulated in the Persona Manager. The service traits, level of    support and feature utilization for example, of a particular user is    stored in this system and is analysed with an inference engine.    Potential Sources of Revenue:

The invention may generate revenues in many ways, such as:

-   1. selling software to large ASPs and enterprises for a fixed fee,    or on the basis of the number of transfers;-   2. user switching transaction fees (from partners and resellers).    Service providers will be charged a fixed dollar amount per customer    switched;-   3. selling aggregate market data on users' behaviours. Data mining    will be done on transactions and this information will be sold at a    fixed rate per user every time it is used; and-   4. advertising revenues.    Potential Partners

Clearly, the invention could be applied to all markets: corporate,individual, wholesale and value-added. Several specific applications,and their particular considerations, include:

-   1. Wireless Service Providers

According to estimates, there will be more wireless devices thanpersonal computers connected to the Internet 100 in the next threeyears, and analysts predict there will be more than 1 billion mobilephones in use by 2003. These figures have led observers to comparetoday's wireless Web industry to the early days of the Internet.

With emerging wireless devices and communications services that offerinstant access to a user's e-mail, calendaring, and stock information,the number of cellular communication services providers (celcos)partnering with established Internet portals continues to rise. Thesepartners are integrating services and offering customers oneconveniently packaged bundle. For example, Bell Mobility™ is bundlingYahoo e-mail and calendaring services as well as time-sensitivepersonalized content such as stock quotes, sports scores, weather, andhoroscopes to their wireless phone and mobile handheld device customers.Rogers/AT&T™ is partnering with Excite™ to offer wireless customers theExcite e-mail, calendaring, and stock portfolio bundle. Yahoo! userswill have wireless access to Yahoo! Mail to view, originate, reply anddelete email messages; Yahoo! Address Book with full search andretrieval functionality; and, Yahoo! Calendar with preferencesaccessible to add, edit or delete scheduled appointments.

The problem begins when a Bell Mobility customer wants to switch becauseRogers/AT&T is offering wireless customers a better price, a newwireless service, or a breakthrough technology. The Bell Mobilitycustomer has their entire life integrated into the Bell Mobility/Yahoosystem. If they want to switch service providers, they will face afrustrating, time-consuming, and error-prone experience.

The wireless market, because of high turnover rate, rapid innovation,and fierce competition, offers tremendous opportunities for theinvention.

-   2. Pureplay Internet Portals

To maintain a customer base, acquire new subscribers, and staycompetitive, Internet portals continue to introduce discontinuousinnovations and enhance functionality. “Stickiness” is a way ofmeasuring the advertising potential of any given web site. The longerthe customer stays at a particular website, the higher the potential foradvertising revenue. Portals increase “stickiness” by offering bettercontent and more value such as free search engine services, emailservices and calendaring services. To maintain their competitive edge,portals relentlessly create new content and features through aggressiveR&D, acquisitions, and partnerships with other Internet technologycompanies.

Portals such as Yahoo, Excite, and AOL™ have an enormous subscriberbase. Their customers could easily be displaced to other serviceproviders by use of the invention, avoiding the current average cost of$108 (USD) to acquire each new customer.

-   3. Telecommunications and Communications Service Providers

To gain a competitive advantage over the competition, telcos (telephonecompanies) and celcos (cellular telephone companies) want to own themajority (or 100%) of their customers' online persona. Celcos and theirassociated devices enhance their customers' lives by relying on andleveraging information from the following sources: unified messagingmailbox, calendar, address book, folders, mailing lists, stockportfolios, sports information, weather information in addition to anyother service-based personal information.

In the very near future, celcos will offer “super bundles” to customers.Since the customer's entire persona will be locked into their service,owning each individual persona will be essential, and it will be worth asignificant amount to the service provider. The invention allows telcoand celco providers to obtain personas from service providersources/competitors.

-   4. Financial Service Providers

Banks and financial institutions have prospered due to the highswitching costs associated with moving from one bank to another. Via theweb, a bank customer can check account balances, pay bills, and reviewtheir transactions. E*Trade leads the online brokerage pack and plans tospend almost $100 million in its marketing campaign this year. Theircost to acquire each new customer is a little more than $400 (USD).

Internet users are taking control of their investments and the Internetis enabling them to do so effortlessly and conveniently. A highpercentage of novice investors start by monitoring stocks on sites thatallow them to build free stock portfolios and get real-time quotes.Owning customers at this level is worth a lot to service providers sincethey can generate revenues by advertising and up sell to their“customers”. Online financial service providers are constantly addingnew features and improving the quality of their service.

Opportunities to apply the invention abound in this highly competitiveenvironment. Hence, future marketing efforts may target the onlinebanking industry, conveniently switching customer accounts and holdingsfrom one institution to another: from bricks and mortar banks such asBank of America™ and Citibank™, to emerging e-banks such asWingspan.com™ and E*Trade Bank™.

-   5. Application Service Providers

The ASP market is growing at an exponential rate. The market researchfirm Dataquest™ predicts that the ASP market will be worth nearly $23billion by 2003. This will force more software vendors to offer web-onlyversions of their most popular software. With this growth it becomesincreasingly important for customers to have the ability to switch fromone service to another, taking all of their content-creation effortswith them.

Additional Options

The invention may be applied in many ways, as described above, and inother ways which would be clear to one skilled in the art. As well, theinvention may be complemented in many ways including the following:

-   1. additional steps of returning feedback to the end user;-   2. optional rollback, which is facilitated by storing the original    downloaded data;-   3. error detection steps, such as timing out while waiting for a    response. These techniques are well known in the art;-   4. use of a multi-threading architecture so that multiple requests    for pages may be sent at the same time, decreasing the elapsed time    required to download data. Each request would have to be tagged so    that the responses may be properly collated when they are received;-   5. sending page requests via various proxy servers to avoid possible    denial from the ASP 110, 120 being relocated;-   6. auto forwarding of new Emails from the old address to the new    address after switching service providers;-   7. encryption using SSL or similar security;-   8. language localisation;-   9. extend the invention to relocate multiple users, allowing, for    example, a company to change the ASP for its entire staff with a    single command;-   10. include ‘brandlining’ of web-pages to make the invention appear    to be ‘owned by’ the partnering organisation, although in fact it    resides on the service switching ASP server 160. This technique    improves “trust” between the end user and the ASP;-   11. extracting data from multiple sources, combining like data in    the service switching facility, and transferring the combined data    to a single destination service. This technique helps combat    bundling, common on portals and cellular telephones and appliances;-   12. omitting steps for translating into a temporary meta data,    instead doing ‘on the fly’ translation between source and    destination formats; and-   13. the addition of step(s) to record information directly    pertaining to the habits of the end-user in order to provide a    ‘persona’ profile of the user for business purposes.

In transferring from one ASP to another, the end-user hopes to haveminimal involvement in the process, but to retain sufficient control andfeedback to be reassured. They would like simply to decide to move aservice from one ASP to another, provide the minimum of requiredinformation, have sufficient feedback to feel comfortable that theprocess is working and correct, have access to some form of audit trail,know that ‘roll-back’ is possible, and have the new system replicate theold content, format and file structure as closely as practicable. Forthe example given of transferring Email service, the end-user simplyprovides the location of the old Email account, as well as its useridand password. This is no harder than logging on to read their Email innormal situation, and there is little room for error; the consequence ofgiving an incorrect response is that the transfer does not even start.

Since the system is relatively fast in operation, the end-user can bekept informed of progress during the transaction. On completion of thetransfer the end-user can be sent a summary of the activities carriedout. Also, following the completion of the transfer, the system canperiodically and automatically log in to the old Email account, checkfor any new Email, and send or transfer a copy to the new account. Oncethe volume of Email arriving at the old account falls below a certainthreshold, the end-user can make a decision to close the old account.

The ‘stickiness’ factor means that the more data about, or belonging to,an end-user that resides on a particular ASP's server, the harder it isfor that end-user to change allegiance and move to a competitor. Withthe evident financial value of new end-users to potential customers, aservice that overcomes this ‘stickiness’ would clearly be highly valued.

Although the invention takes advantage of the standardisation ofprotocols and data inherent in the World Wide Web/Internet and HTML, andthe current implementation presupposes networks, browsers andApplications which adhere to these standards, the invention may beequally applied to other environments where the protocols and interfacesare well understood, and consistent, even if proprietary.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shownand described, it is clear that changes and modifications may be made tosuch embodiments without departing from the true scope and spirit of theinvention.

In the preferred embodiment described, the software is described asresiding on an Internet server separate from either of the Email ASPservers. However, this software may reside at any location within theInternet including, but not limited to, the new Email ASP server, on theend-user's machine following download/transfer from an Internet Server,or transiently, for example as a Java Applet or in a distributedcomputing environment.

As well, the invention has been described with respect to theapplication of relocating user data from one ASP to another, but clearlycould be applied to enterprise applications, where the user preferencesor personal data for a large organization are moved are moved as a groupfrom an ASP to another ASP or even a private server (conversely, thedata could be replicated from a private server to an ASP)

The method steps of the invention may be embodiment in sets ofexecutable machine code stored in a variety of formats such as objectcode or source code. Such code is described generically herein asprogramming code, or a computer program for simplification. Clearly, theexecutable machine code may be integrated with the code of otherprograms, implemented as subroutines, by external program calls or byother techniques as known in the art.

The embodiments of the invention may be executed by a computer processoror similar device programmed in the manner of method steps, or may beexecuted by an electronic system which is provided with means forexecuting these steps. Similarly, an electronic memory medium such ascomputer diskettes, CD-Roms, Random Access Memory (RAM), Read OnlyMemory (ROM) or similar computer software storage media known in theart, may be programmed to execute such method steps.

The invention could, for example, be applied to computers, smartterminals, personal digital assistants, cellular telephones, set-topboxes and web TV, telephone over IP and Internet-ready telephones.Again, such implementations would be clear to one skilled in the art,and do not take away from the invention.

1. A method comprising: accessing, in response to a data transferrequest, a first account at a first location via a first interface,wherein the first account is accessed by emulating a firstauthentication operation, and wherein the first account is associatedwith a first application; extracting data in a first format from thefirst account at the first location by emulating a first interactionoperation; converting the extracted data into a second format; andtransferring the converted data to a second account at a secondlocation, wherein the second account is associated with a secondapplication, and wherein the second application provides a similarservice with respect to the first application.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the extracted data comprises a folder structure.
 3. The methodof claim 1, further comprising emulating a second authenticationoperation to access the second account.
 4. The method of claim 3,wherein emulating the second authentication operation comprisesemulating the second authentication operation via a second interfaceassociated with the second account.
 5. The method of claim 3, whereinemulating the second authentication operation comprises entering atleast one of an identifier or a password associated with the secondaccount.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing thetransferred data to be saved at the second location using an importutility.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring thefirst location for additional data associated with the first account. 8.The method of claim 7, further comprising: accessing, in response to anidentification of the additional data, the first account via the firstinterface by emulating the first authentication operation; extractingthe additional data in the first format from the first account byemulating a second interaction operation; converting the extractedadditional data into the second format; and transferring the convertedadditional data to the second account at the second location.
 9. Themethod of claim 7, wherein the monitoring for the additional data occursafter transferring the converted data to the second account.
 10. Anarticle of manufacture including a computer-readable medium havingnon-transitory instructions stored thereon, that if executed by acomputing device, cause the computing device to perform operationscomprising: accessing in response to a data transfer request, a firstaccount at a first location via an interface, wherein accessing thefirst account includes emulating a first authentication operation, andwherein the first account is associated with a first application;extracting data in a first format from the first account by emulating aninteraction operation, wherein the extracted data comprises user accountdata and user account organizational structure; converting the extracteddata into a second format; and transferring the converted data to asecond account at a second location, wherein the second account isassociated with a second application, and wherein the second applicationprovides a similar service with respect to the first application. 11.The article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein the computing devicefurther performs operations comprising accessing the first account via agraphic user interface.
 12. The article of manufacture of claim 10,wherein the computing device further performs operations comprisingaccessing the second account by emulating a second authenticationoperation.
 13. The article of manufacture of claim 12, wherein theoperations that cause the computing device to access the second accountby emulating the second authentication operation include operations thatfacilitate entering a password associated with the second account. 14.The article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein the computing devicefurther performs operations comprising saving the extracted data. 15.The article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein the computing devicefurther performs operations comprising monitoring the first location foradditional data associated with the first account, wherein themonitoring occurs subsequent to the transfer of the converted data tothe second account.
 16. The article of manufacture of claim 10, whereinthe operations that cause the computing device to emulate the firstauthentication operation include operations that facilitate entering apassword associated with the first account into the interface.
 17. Acomputing device comprising: a processor; and a memory operativelycoupled to the processor and storing computer-readable instructionsthat, in response to execution by the computing device, cause thecomputing device to: emulate, in response to a data transfer request, afirst authentication operation to access a first account at a firstlocation via an interface, wherein the first account is associated witha first application; emulate an interaction operation to extract data ina first format from the first account, wherein the extracted datacomprises user account data and user account organizational structure;convert the extracted data into a second format; and transfer theconverted data to a second account at a second location, wherein thesecond account is associated with a second application, and wherein thesecond application provides a similar service with respect to the firstapplication.
 18. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the firstaccount comprises a first e-mail account and the second accountcomprises a second e-mail account.
 19. The computing device of claim 17,wherein the computer-readable instructions further cause the computingdevice to access the second account by emulating a second authenticationoperation.
 20. The computing device of claim 19, wherein emulating thesecond authentication operation comprises receiving an identificationand a password associated with the second account.
 21. The computingdevice of claim 17, wherein the computer-readable instructions furthercause the computing device to request the transferred data be saved atthe second location.
 22. The computing device of claim 17, furthercomprising a server, wherein the data transfer request is received froma web site in communication with the server.
 23. The computing device ofclaim 17, wherein the computer-readable instructions further cause thecomputing device to derive source data from the extracted data, whereinthe source data is transferred to the second account.
 24. The computingdevice of claim 23, wherein the source data is derived using a deltatechnique.